The present invention relates to transaction processing based on cellular communications, and particularly relates to using a customer""s digital cellular phone to transmit transaction information.
Retail sales systems must provide convenience for the customer and efficiency for the retailer. Credit and debit cards provide retailers with one mechanism for increasing the efficiency of retail sales systems, while providing a level of convenience to consumers. Indeed, credit card and debit card transactions are ubiquitous, with a variety of retail equipment providing such capability. A given retailer or merchant is effectively obligated to provide credit transaction capability because it is so widely expected. Currently, banks provide virtually all non-proprietary credit/debit salesxe2x80x94(Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, etc.). These banks typically charge from 3% to 6% to float the billing amount for a given transaction through a billing cyclexe2x80x94typically three to four weeks. These costs are borne directly by the merchants and indirectly by the consumers, and provide a significant revenue stream for the banks or credit card companies. Indeed, American consumers charged billions of dollars last year, and when international credit transactions are considered, the total amount of credit charges is staggering.
However, conventional charge transactions do not necessarily provide the greatest convenience and security to consumers, nor do they provide retailers with the greatest efficiency. Credit card transactions themselves are subject to fraudulent charging activity because, conventionally, they do not require specific identification information from the individual using the charge card. As a consequence, someone other than the authorized account holder could use the charge card. This is particularly true in automated transaction systems, such as are commonly found at fueling stations, pay phones, and vending systems. In such environments, transaction authorization is based on receipt of valid information from a credit card associated with an active charge account. Provided the automated retail system can verify credit authorization, as is typically done by contacting a credit authorization network, the transaction will be authorized without benefit of specifically identifying the person using the charge card.
Debit card transactions, although similar to credit card transactions, typically require the customer to enter a PIN associated with the authorized account. Further, a debit card is more typically associated with a bank account such as a checking account rather than with a charge account. Ideally, only the authorized account holder knows the PIN corresponding to the account. When a debit-card holder attempts to conduct a transaction with their debit card, they are required to enter the correct PIN before the transaction can be authorized. Clearly, unless the privacy of the PIN has been compromised, this provides an additional level of security not commonly found with pure credit card transactions. However, usage of a PIN can place additional burdens on the merchant because the complexity and expense of the equipment required to input and process PINs can be prohibitive. Indeed, European debit card transactions must be supported by bank-authorized PIN processing hardware. Such hardware carries significant expense and may be impractical for installation in vending or retail systems associated with low-cost or low-margin products and services.
A growing number of customers own cellular telephones and, in particular, own digital cellular telephones. Digital cellular telephones are distinguished from their earlier generation analog counterparts in a number of ways. One significant distinction of the newer digital cellular phones is their intrinsic communications security. Signaling between a digital cellular phone and its corresponding cellular network is based on digitally encrypted communications that are substantially more difficult to intercept and decipher than the signaling schemes used in earlier analog phones. As such, these digital cellular phones are suitable for use in transaction processing, wherein a customer may transmit certain information, including their PIN, to effect a given retail transaction. Further, using a customer""s digital cellular telephone as an integral part of a retail transaction system is consistent with the desire to provide customers with ever more convenient retail transactions. Indeed, developing generations of cellular telephones incorporate more and more functionality for their owners and will likely come to serve as all-in-one communication devices.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide retail systems capable of communicating certain transaction information to a cellular network for the purpose of obtaining transaction authorization, with such information sent through a customer cellular telephone. Ideally, the retail system would additionally have the capability of receiving authorization information from the cellular network through a second cellular link apart from the customer""s cellular phone. This second cellular link would also allow the retail system to complete the transaction by sending transaction amount information back to the cellular network for billing against the customer""s cellular phone account.
The present invention provides a retail transaction system adapted to transfer select information to a customer""s cellular phone for subsequent transfer to a cellular billing network by the customer""s cellular telephone and further adapted to receive transaction authorization information from the cellular billing network through a separate cellular link. The retail system is further adapted to conduct a retail transaction based on the transaction authorization information it receives and, upon completion of the transaction, transmit transaction cost information back to the cellular billing network for billing against the customer""s cellular telephone account. In the preferred embodiment, the retail transaction system is a fuel dispenser in combination with a point-of-sale system or site controller.
The fuel dispenser is associated with a communications interface that provides a communications link between the fuel dispenser and the customer""s proximate cellular telephone. Using the communications link, the fuel dispenser transfers select site information to the customer cellular telephone, such site information preferably including a station ID, a fuel dispenser ID, and an outgoing phone number. The cellular telephone then calls, either automatically or under manual customer control, the outgoing phone number, thereby contacting the cellular billing network. Once in contact with the network, the select site information, along with additional customer information stored in the cellular telephone, is transferred from the cellular telephone to the network.
The cellular billing network uses this information to determine authorization for the transaction. The network communicates the authorization information back to the point-of-sale system. If the transaction is authorized, the site controller is adapted to control the fuel dispenser, permitting the customer to dispense the desire quantity fuel. After the customer completes dispensing activities, the fuel dispenser sends quantity and/or cost information back to the site controller. In turn, the site controller communicates this information back to the cellular billing network for assessment against the customer""s cellular telephone account. The point-of-sale system is associated with a cellular communications interface allowing the transmission and reception of information to and from the cellular billing network.